Austin: What's the One Thing That Would Make Life On Your Block Better?

What one thing would make life on your block better? KUT wants to hear from you.

What's the one thing that would make life on your block better?

As Austin prepares for its first elections with 10 new geographic districts, KUT is diving deeply into District One, which covers large parts of East Austin. But we want to hear from you, regardless of where you live. Tell us: What would make life better on your block?

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Some background: For decades, members of the Austin City Council have been elected to represent the city as a whole. They all ran citywide. But this November, for the first time, geographic representation will create a council elected to represent specific parts of town.

Austin voters approved geographic representation (also called single-member districts) in 2012. The setup they approved is commonly called the “10-1” plan: 10 districts with one council member each and one citywide candidate in the mayor.

When a citizen commission began drawing the 10 districts, it started in east and northeast Austin – in what's now called District One. That’s because Austin’s African-American population is shrinking, and it would be a challenge to draw a district that gave black Austinites the opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice. While District One was designed as an African-American opportunity district, it is only 28 percent black. Still, that’s the highest share of the population among the 10 districts.

District One stretches from the Governor’s Mansion downtown all the way north to Howard Lane and east beyond State Highway 130. It includes some of Austin’s most rapidly gentrifying areas. It also includes places – so far – untouched by Austin’s booming growth.

The whole idea behind these districts is that council members would be more connected to their district – because they actually live there. KUT wants to know what people are thinking about in the district.

So starting in District One, KUT is launching a new project: On My Block.

On My Block revolves around a simple question. We want the residents of District One to tell us: what’s the one thing that would make life on your block better?

We’re looking to see what questions and concerns are shared by the entire district – and also learn what makes each block unique.

For example, here's two responses from the southern part of District 1, near Downtown and Interstate 35:

But ask the same question in the another part of District 1 – maybe out past the SH 130 toll road, close to Pflugerville – and you might get different responses:

KUT is continuing to interview people at home and on their street – wherever we find them in District One. But we also want to hear from you, whether you live in District One or not. What’s the one thing that would make life better on your block?

Related Content

This article was co-produced as part of an ongoing City Hall reporting partnership between the Austin Monitor and KUT. Listen to the audio story broadcast on KUT in the player below.

With single-member districts soon to become a reality, Austin City Council candidates are already lining up to crowd what promises to be a very full November ballot. Austin's political insiders and outsiders alike are trying to get a handle on an election that promises to shape the city for years to come.

Roger Borgelt is vice chairman of the Travis County Republican Party. He also served as co-chair of the Austinites for Geographic Representation – the group responsible for getting 10-1 on the ballot. He says that he is excited about the promise of more localized, neighborhood representation, as well as the possibility of conservatives (or at least fiscal conservatives) taking some of the 11 open City Council seats.

This article was co-produced with KUT News’ Joy Diaz as part of an ongoing City of Austin reporting partnership between In Fact Daily and KUT. Listen to KUT's broadcast story in the audio player below.

Among the changes that will accompany the start of districted representation for Austin City Council members, at least one unintended consequence is causing some level of civic heartburn for interests represented by figures ranging from current sitting Council members to the outspoken face of the 10-1 movement: A potential shift in the way things get done at City Hall.

That change, should it play out, will find the office of City Manager – the unelected executive arm of city government – becoming a much more powerful position. “The City Manager, at least temporarily – until people find their footing – is going to have a substantial amount of power,” said longtime Austin political organizer David Butts.

Update: Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell delivered his final "State of the City" address today at noon.

Leffingwell's office billed the 40-minute speech as an overview of the mayor's two terms in office. Leffingwell was elected mayor in 2009 and 2012; Austin will elect a new mayor this November. Read below for a real-time report on the mayor's remarks. Video of the mayor's speech will be included in this post once it is available.

That's a wrap: Leffingwell ends his speech with a call for interconnectedness going forward into single-member districts. On to a Q&A session with the crowd.

Not many major proclamations coming out of the mayor's address: calls for a medical school innovation district and urban rail were big moments from the mayor's speech last year. Still, the address can be viewed as doubling down on initiatives Leffingwell wants to accomplish before leaving office; as soon as his speech ended, his office issued a statement titled "Mayor defines focus for final 10 months in office."